I'll be spending just a long weekend in KL soon - anyone have any tips as to whats good to do? In particular if you can recommend a great restaurant?...thanks!

I grew up in Malaysia and lived in KL for a year while going to college. Visit the Petronas Towers (a.k.a. KLCC). Be there early to get a tour up to the observation floor.

Head over to Petaling Street (a.k.a. Chinatown) for some bargain hunting. They sell all kinds of stuff here including fake Rolexes. As with just about any place in Malaysia, haggle for the best price. Walk away if you don't get the price you want. There's another vendor who'll want your business just down the street.

Central Market is interesting for local arts/crafts/foods. Look for silk, batik, songket clothing or decorative items here.

Lake Gardens is a good place to stop if you're the hustle and bustle of th city is getting to you and you want a little quiet. It's an extensive park area at the edge of the city with some noteworthy sights like the National Monument, Bird Park, Butterfly Park and Orchid Garden. There's even concerts there in the amphitheater on some days.

Take a ride out to Putrajaya/Cyberjaya, the new high-tech capital for some interesting architecture of government buildings, mosque and bridges.

Journey out a little further to Batu Caves. It's a limestone hill with multiple caves that have been used as Hindu Temples. If you happen to be there during Thaipussam you'll be in for quite an experience as devotees perform their pilgrimage to the temples carrying kavadis.

You certainly won't run out of things to do during your weekend there.

For cheap eats, stop at any number of hawker center/stall and try out some local delicacies like nasi lemak, roti canai, nasi kandar and assorted other chinese and indian dishes. If you'd like some place a little more upscale (though pricey by Malaysian standards), stop at the KL Tower for a meal. KL Tower is a very tall communications tower and has a revolving restaurant at the top of it. They offer a buffet-style meal of local dishes. The food is pretty good in general (though not as authentic as hawker stalls) but the view is gorgeous. You'll get a bird's eye view of most of the city and surrounding suburbs on a clear day. They do have a dress code, so gentlemen will have to be in trousers. Don't fear if you happened to be dressed in shorts. The friendly restaurant staff will lend you a sarong to cover your legs and be decent.

Lastly, click on this link for some pictures of my trip "home" last year:
http://teoh.us/v/travel/malaysia2005/kl/

Have a wonderful trip!

-Pete

Head to Bukit Bintang (Star Hill) area as there are plenty of shopping malls there that have food halls that offer really cheap and great food. If you are ataying at a hostel / hotel ask the receptionist to point you in the right direction for local food. You can get food for around RM 7 which is about £1 - £2. There are also a lot of restaurants around the city to choose from Malay, Indian or Chinese. Go where the locals go as the food is fantastic. I would suggest you try Laksa, Mee Goreng, Nasi Lemak - a few of the popular foods.
For sightseeing try Batu Caves and Petronas Towers (also has a great food court). IF you like shopping, KL is a shopping mecca and always has some sale or another. There should be night markets at Petaling Street as well.
Taxis are cheap but have where you want to go written down to show the driver especially if you don't speak Malay. Many people do speak English but it is not their first language. You can try buses, have patience and you should know where you want to get off. Alternatively they also have a light rail system that is easy to use.

Have a great weekend in KL.

Shaz is right about the language barrier. Taxi drivers will mostly speak "English" but most Malaysians only understand and speak a heavily accented Malaysian version of English. Speak s-l-o-w-l-y to them and you'll have better luck. Also, look for taxis that use the meter, otherwise it's likely you'll be "taken for a ride" on the fare. There are lots of scammers out there if you're not careful.

in bangsar check out the kashmir for quality indian food

quote:

Originally posted by Pete Teoh:
Visit the Petronas Towers (a.k.a. KLCC). Be there early to get a tour up to the observation floor.

We chose to go up KL tower instead of the Petronas Towers for a couple of reasons:

1) You can get up higher in the KL tower - in the Petronas Towers you only get to go as far as the bridge. (And it you're actually higher up than the Petronas Towers too, even though KL Tower is shorter, as KL Tower is on a hill).

2) You can spend as long as you want up KL Tower, we've been told you only get a 10 minute time slot on the bridge of the Petronas Towers.

3) You get a really good view of the Petronas Towers from KL tower and we have some great pics of us with the Petronas Tower in the background.

4) You get to choose when you want to go up - with the Petronas Towers you get allocated a time slot in the morning. You might queue up at 6.30 am for a ticket and be allocated a 3.10pm slot. Makes it difficult to plan your day in advance.

The downside of KL Tower is that you have to pay to go up it (about 15RM I think (c. 3 GBP) but it's not too pricey and you get an MP4 player which talks you through what you can see from each window.

KG

Hey thanks so much for all your advice!!

One more question - I speak bahasa indonesia (well, i get by) - will people understand me?

Taking a wild stab in the dark that you speak English...

People will understand you.

KG

Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia are similar, but they do use a lot of different words too and the accents are completely different. That said, the BM accent in Sabah and Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo) is similar to BI. I think most people will understand BI if you don't speak too quickly.

You'll get by just fine with English and BI. Have a great trip!

Actually, being less flippant this time, I met a European Indonesian guy in KL. He says he speaks English as he picks up some very interesting pieces of information (including when haggling) when other people think they cant be understood.

KG

Thanks guys!

Make sure to get a map of KL...I got mine at the hotel...it's helpful to see where you are, especially since the area around the Petronas Towers actually isn't very big (short taxi rides here and there, with a great deal in walking distances)

I definitely agree that you should visit the marketplaces, although of course be sure to haggle (start at half and work up...works in China, worked in KL). Be wary of taxis without meters, although I personally didn't have a problem when I was there in January for 3 days.

Also, the Lake Gardens area is worth it...expansive greenery with the aforementioned bird parks etc. Particularly a nice walk around in the late afternoon, after the heat peak of the day.

Have a great trip!

Here's a map of KL from about a year ago. I uploaded it to my web site. Click on the image to download the full-sized map.

http://teoh.us/v/misc/junk/KLmap_001.gif.html

quote:

Originally posted by Pete Teoh:
Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia are similar, but they do use a lot of different words too and the accents are completely different. That said, the BM accent in Sabah and Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo) is similar to BI.

just to nit-pick a bit, but you're probably referring to Bahasa Sarawak rather than the "BM accent" (although personally to me, neither of them is similar to BI at all). The former however is a completely different language than any knowledge of either BM or BI would not help you much.

Glad to see a fellow Malaysian posting on the boards!

Hi cayce. I'm glad there's another Malaysian running around on the board too.

It's kinda interesting but I've always thought of Bahasa Sarawak as a loghat Sarawak rather than a completely different language... much like loghat Kedah where I came from. KL-ites often have a hard time understanding what Kedah natives say.